Matt Trowbridge: Fewer walks mean more wins for Cubs pitchers

The first year of Theo Epstein’s regime was the worst year for the Chicago Cubs in 46 seasons. In Year 2, the Cubs at least aren’t as bad as the White Sox, but they are 13.5 games behind the Pirates, a team that has not had a single winning season in 20 years. But there is one clear sign that the Cubs are paying attention to at least one of Epstein’s tenets, giving them hope for the future.

The first year of Theo Epstein’s regime was the worst year for the Chicago Cubs in 46 seasons. In Year 2, the Cubs at least aren’t as bad as the White Sox, but they are 13.5 games behind the Pirates, a team that has not had a single winning season in 20 years. But there is one clear sign that the Cubs are paying attention to at least one of Epstein’s tenets, giving them hope for the future.

The Cubs are 15th in baseball in most walks allowed this year.

They were second (by one walk) to Toronto last year.

They were first in 2011 when the 106-loss Astros were second.

They were also first in 2010.

Walks aren’t exciting, but they are the silent killers for pitching staffs. And they tell the Chicago Cubs recent rise and fall as much as any stat.

When they led all of baseball in walks in 2006, the Cubs were 30 games below .500.

The next year, they dropped to seventh in walks and rose to a winning record, 85-77.

The year after that, they dropped to 16th in walks and rose to the best record in the NL, 97-64.

The year after that, they were ninth in walks and still had a winning record, 83-78.

They then had three straight losing seasons when they ranked first, first and second in walks.

In the last two years, no team that reached the playoffs ranked in the top 10 in most walks allowed by their pitchers.

And check out the Cubs’ rivals to the north. In 2010, the Brewers were second in walks and eight games below .500.

A year later, the Brewers sank to 27th in walks and won 96 games.

The Giants won the World Series in 2010 when they were fourth in most walks allowed and the Rangers ranked eighth yet made the playoffs. The Yankees were sixth in walks in 2007. Those three are the only teams to reach the playoffs in the last nine years that ranked ninth or higher in most walks allowed.

The Red Sox (No. 2) and Pirates (No. 6) are a combined 40 games above .500 this year despite being among the league leaders in walks allowed. You could interpret that to mean that walks can be overrated as pitching staff killers. I say it’s one more reason to doubt whether the Pirates are for real and that the Red Sox won’t collapse again.

The Cubs have a whole lot of things yet to work on. So far, the main difference that critics have noticed in the Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer era is that the Cubs have gone from one of the lowest-rated minor league systems to being loaded with prospects. That shows Epstein and Hoyer can discover talent.

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The drastic reduction in walks shows the new Cubs’ regime can also develop talent. At least pitching talent.